The Milwaukee man charged with killing a Family Dollar clerk during a robbery in August took his case to a jury Monday.

Jason Darnell Wandick, 26, told a friend he committed the robbery because his mother needed money, according to a criminal complaint.

But Wandick's attorney told jurors during his opening statement that witnesses who identified him were mistaken or uncertain, and a former friend who said Wandick had confessed was just trying to frame him. In fact, Wandick was on the other side of town the day of the deadly robbery, the attorney said.

Wandick is charged with first-degree reckless homicide as party to a crime, attempted armed robbery, armed robbery in another incident, resisting an officer and being a felon in possession of a gun. He has been in custody since his arrest Aug. 31.

William Melendez Jr., 44, was killed about 3:30 p.m. Aug. 6 while working in the store at 4331 W. Oklahoma Ave. He was shot in the head at close range even though he had agreed to give up the store's money.

Publicity about the crime generated many tips but no arrests until after Family Dollar offered a $10,000 reward for information.

Wandick's cousin and co-defendant, Mikal Hasun Jones, has already pleaded guilty to felony murder in the case and is expected to testify for the prosecution.

Jones, 29, and Wandick were driving in Jones' black Chevrolet Caprice on Aug. 6 when Wandick had Jones pull over near Family Dollar, exited and said he'd be right back. Jones told police Wandick eventually returned and they left.

A relative of Jones' told police Aug. 20 that Jones told her he had been doing "dirty" stuff with Wandick and that Wandick had killed the Family Dollar clerk during a robbery. The relative told police she recognized Wandick on the store video, and that he appeared to be wearing a dreadlocks wig he had worn in the past.

Then a Greenfield woman told police that Wandick had robbed her at gunpoint outside her home two days before the Family Dollar incident. Video from gas stations showed Wandick and Jones using the woman's credit card in the hours after she was attacked.

Before he was charged in the Family Dollar robbery, Jones was arrested Sept. 14 and charged with an Aug. 12 robbery of a woman outside her home on Milwaukee's northwest side, a crime similar to the one in Greenfield a week earlier. The victim identified Jones as one of her two assailants, and he was seen on video from a gas station using that victim's credit card a short time after she was robbed at gunpoint.